Privacy & Cookie Policy

This Policy applies to your use of our Site and other services, whether as a visitor to our Site (“Visitor”) or as a registered user (“User”), including a freelance artist or studio that provides their CGI services through our Site (“Heroes”). This Policy explains how we process your personal data: how it is collected, how it is stored, and who it may be shared with. It also explains your rights under the law relating to your personal data.

Our Site may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.

Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that, on its own, or when combined with other information, enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also online identifiers.

Depending upon your use of our Site, we may collect some or all of the data listed below, which may be personal data (please also see Part 12 on our use of Cookies and similar technologies).

Information you may choose to give us

If you are a Hero, some of your information (e.g. name, Hero summary, skills and technical abilities, artwork / portfolios and other descriptive information) will be displayed publicly on our Site. The level of information visible to a visitor of our Site will differ depending on whether they are a Visitor or a User.

We do not request information classed as ‘special categories of personal data’ under the GDPR (see ICO Guidance on special categories of personal data). If you choose to provide us with this information as part of your Hero summary you acknowledge that this may be included within the information displayed publicly, as detailed above.

Note that if you decide not to provide us with certain personal data this may impact upon our ability to provide you with our services or Site.

Information we collect automatically

Whenever you visit our Site, we may collect information (including personal data) relating to your use of our Site. We may use cookies or other similar technologies to collect this information (see further details on our use of cookies and how to opt-out below).

The information we collect may include your IP address, your interactions with the Site and our services (e.g. date of your visit, pages visited, length of time spent on our Site etc.), referring URL, browser, device, operating system and Internet Service Provider.

Information we obtain from third parties

Your personal data may be obtained from third parties, such as social media companies (the information you have made available through such channels or where you choose to link this to your CGHero account), other companies that hold your publicly or commercially accessible data, companies that provide us with payment services, other companies that we have partnered with to provide our services or individuals who (with your consent) share your personal data with us.

Under the GDPR, we must always have a lawful basis for using personal data. This may be because the data is necessary in order to enter into or perform a contract with you, because you have consented to our use of your personal data (you can always withdraw your consent), or because it is in our legitimate business interests to use it. Your personal data may be used for one of the following legitimate business purposes:

With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your personal data for marketing purposes, which may include contacting you by email with information, news, and offers on our services. You will not be sent any unlawful marketing or spam. We will always work to fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and you will always have the opportunity to opt-out.

We will not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected, as set out in this Policy. In determining for how long we will retain your personal data, we take into account certain factors, such as the length of time since our last interaction with you and whether we are required to retain the information for a certain period under applicable laws, e.g. financial transaction data.

We store your personal data on servers located in the European Economic Area (the “EEA” consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). We may also store or transfer some or all of your personal data to countries that are not part of the EEA. These are known as “third countries” and may not have data protection laws that are as strong as those in the UK and/or the EEA. This means that we will take additional steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the EEA and under the GDPR, for example, by entering into Standard Contractual Clauses.

Please contact us using the details below in Part 13 for further information about the particular data protection mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data to a third country.

In some limited circumstances we may be legally required to share your personal data. For example, if we are involved in legal proceedings or if we need to comply with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.

In addition, we may sometimes contract with third parties (including parties located outside of the EEA) to supply products and/or services to us or to you on our behalf . These may include payment processing, project management tools and marketing. In some cases, those third parties may require access to some or all of your personal data that we hold.

If any of your personal data is required by a third party, as described above, we will take steps to ensure that your personal data is handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the third party’s obligations under the law.

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:

For more information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us using the details provided below.

Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

In addition to your rights under the GDPR, set out above, when you submit personal data via our Site, you may be given options to restrict our use of your personal data. In particular, we aim to give you strong controls on our use of your data for direct marketing purposes (including the ability to opt-out of receiving marketing emails from us which you may do by unsubscribing using the links provided in our marketing emails, at the point of providing your details or by contacting us at privacy@cghero.com).

If you want to know what personal data we have about you, you can ask us for details of that personal data and for a copy of it (where any such personal data is held). This is known as a “subject access request”.

All subject access requests should be made in writing and sent to the email or postal addresses shown below.

There is not normally any charge for a subject access request. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

We will respond to your subject access request within one month of receiving it. Normally, we aim to provide a complete response, including a copy of your personal data within that time. In some cases, however, particularly if your request is more complex, more time may be required up to a maximum of three months from the date we receive your request. You will be kept fully informed of our progress.

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer or device by our Site when you visit our Site and/or when you use certain features of our Site.

Our Site may place and access certain first-party cookies on your computer or device. First-party cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us. We use cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our Site and to provide and improve our services.

By using our Site you may also receive certain third-party cookies on your computer or device. Third-party cookies are those placed by websites, services, and/or parties other than us. For example, we may use third-party cookies through Google Analytics and HubSpot for analytics tracking. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse usage statistics, enabling us to better understand how people use our Site.

If you wish to prevent cookies being stored on your computer or device, you will need to access your browser settings.

For more detailed information on cookies visit: All About Cookies or ICO Cookie Guidance.

To contact us about anything to do with your personal data, data protection, cookies, or to make a request in relation to your data, please use the following details:

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. This may be necessary, for example, if the law changes, or if we change our business in a way that affects data protection.